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Alt.Starfleet.Rpg (ASR): United Federation of Planets,
Department of Colonial Affairs
(UFPDOCA)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Version 2.1
CONTENTS
1.) What is UFPDOCA?
2.) Who is the current Secretary?
3.) That's nice, but how does all of this fit into ASR?
4.) How does the UFPDOCA Secretary fit into all of this?
5.) Great! How do I submit a colony to the database?
6.) So, what does the template look like?
7.) What do the template fields mean?
8.) Do you have an example?
9.) Need I fill out each template field?
10.) What is the address of the UFPDOCA homepage?
11.) What are these 'megacorps' mentioned on the homepage?
12.) Anything else?
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1.) What is UFPDOCA?
UFPDOCA stands for The United Federation of Planets,
Department of Colonial Affairs. UFPDOCA is charged with the
administration of, and supervision of, the various Federation
member worlds' colonization efforts throughout explored space.
DOCA's primary role is to act as the liaison between Federation
colonies and the Federation government.
It is also charged with settling disputes that may arise
between colonies and member worlds, or between member worlds
themselves, on issues of colonization. The Department is a
cabinet level office of the Federation government, headed by
the Secretary for Colonial Affairs, who is appointed by the
Federation President, and confirmed by the Federation Council.
2.) Who is the current Secretary?
Currently, the office of Secretary of Colonial Affairs is
held by Thomas Quinn Coleman, a former DOCA Field assesment administrator
and Freeholder of Ulisia Prime Colony.
Secretary Coleman is played by Marc Johnson.
3.) That's nice, but how does all of this fit into ASR?
UFPDOCA has been charged by the Flag Council, and the
CINCSF, to catalog and provide information on the various
colonies of the Federation, as created by players in various
missions, as well as in their character bios. It is the hope
of both myself, and the Flag Council, that by doing so, the
'tapestry' that is ASR will be improved, providing a resource
for players and COs to draw upon for character information, as
well as potential plots.
The possibilities for use by ASR players are endless. COs
will have a large database of colonies to use for the purpose
of building plots for their ships. Flag players will be able
to know what worlds are in their areas, as well as provide
interesting details for their commands. Individual players
will have the opportunity to create new PCs and NPCs with
richer backgrounds because of this.
Perhaps the greatest advantage is for players who create
new characters. They need not always create a 'new' colony
world from which their character hails, unless they choose to
do so, of course. Instead, they will be able to access the
DOCA database, and can tie a character to a preexisting
colony--one which has all of the 'messy' details supplied
already.
4.) How does the UFPDOCA Secretary fit into all of this?
The Secretary of DOCA's purpose is to act as a facilitator
and 'clearinghouse' for all of this information. While in RP,
the Secretary answers only to the Federation President, in
NRPG, the secretary answers to the player of the CINCSF, and
the Flag Council.
The Secretary of Colonial Affairs is charged with creating
a template and format for submissions to the ASR Colony
Database. They are also charged with taking submissions, and
adding them to the database, as well as seeking clarification
from players as needed.
It should be stressed that this position is -not- a
position with actual powers of 'judgement' over the
'worthiness' or any other creative question, of colony
submissions. The Secretary is not someone who judges
submissions prior to their inclusion. All submissions, so
long as they are in the proper format, will be included in
the database, regardless of the creator or content.
However, the standard ASR disclaimers about content
standards gamewide apply. The Secretary would like to remind
all potential contributors that this is a family forum, there
are no cross-overs allowed, nor any ultra-powerful resident
alien races.
5.) Great! How do I submit a colony to the database?
Simple. The UFPDOCA Secretary has taken the liberty of
creating a submission template to aide you in detailing your
colony submissions. Simply fill in the details in the
appropriate blanks, and send the submission to the Secretary.
Please make the Subject header as follows: UFPDOCA: [colony]
Where [ ] is the name of your colony. The Secretary will
get back to you within a few days after sending your entry,
and will let you know if there are any questions that need
clarification, or information that needs to be provided.
6.) So, what does the template look like?
Use the following format for submitting your colony design:
Official UFPDOCA Submission Template
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Colony Name:
Creator:
==============================================================
GEOGRAPHY
System/Location:
Distance to Nearest Starbase:
Planet Classification:
Satellites/Space Stations:
Land/Water Ratio:
Climate Controlled:
Native Sentient Life:
==============================================================
COLONY INFORMATION
Colony Age (approximate):
Population (approximate):
Species Present:
Colony Status:
Government:
Major Cities/Settlements:
History:
Economy:
Tech Level:
Culture:
Notes:
==============================================================
7.) What do the template fields mean?
To give you some idea of what kind of information is
expected for each of these headings, here is a brief
description of what each of them might entail.
UFPDOCA Official Submission Template
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Colony Name: self-explanatory
Creator: If you created this world on your own,
simply supply your own name. Otherwise,
please detail the co-creators of the
planet, since we do want to give credit
to those who have earned it.
===============================================================
GEOGRAPHY
System/Location: Name of system, and location. If your
colony is located near a neutral zone,
near disputed territory, etc., please
detail that information here.
Distance to Nearest Starbase:
Approximate time, in days/weeks at Warp 6
to the nearest Federation starbase.
This tells how remote the colony is,
and also has a significant impact on
how soon help could arrive from
Starfleet. This base need not be one
of the fleet command bases (ALPHA,
GAMMA, DELTA, etc.). It can be one of
the 'lesser' starbases, an outpost, DS
station, etc.
Planet Classification: M-Class, L-Class, etc. This tells
other players how large your planet is,
and what kind of atmosphere it has. If
the colony has a non-oxygen atmosphere,
please detail what kind of atmosphere.
Also, if the colony's gravity is
significantly over or under 1G (Earth
gravity), please detail this information
here.
Note: DOCA has provided a table to
help players with classifying colony
worlds. Feel free to use these
guidelines when developing your world.
Satellites/Space Stations:
Number of moons, and whether or not
they are inhabited. Please also supply
whether or not there are any orbiting
space stations.
Land/Water Ratio: Percent land/percent water.
Climate Controlled: Yes/No. Some colonies will be, others
will not.
Native Sentient Life: Yes/No. Again, some colonies will have
it, and others will not.
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COLONY INFORMATION
Colony Age (approximate): Years since the foundation of the
colony. You may also, if you have a
specific year in mind, supply that
information, but that is not necessary-
-you may approximate.
Population (approximate):
Again, exact figures are not necessary.
You may approximate this number to the
nearest million, thousand, hundred, etc.
Species Present: If the colony is almost entirely human,
you may simply put 'Human' in this
field. If there are a significant
number of non-humans present (over 5
percent), please detail the percentages
involved.
Colony Status: This field describes the colony's
official and unofficial relationship
with the UFP. Many colonies will be
'UFP Protectorates,' but others will be
of other classes; independent, eg.
Government: If the colony has a specific form/manner
of governing itself, detail this here.
Some colonies will be in states of
'anarchy.' If this is the case, please
detail how bad the situation is.
Major Cities/Settlements:
Self-explanatory. This field may be
left blank, if necessary.
History: Detail (briefly) the colony's history.
Please include any important events,
treaties, etc. here. Be detailed, but
don't try to explain everything.
Economy: Most will be latinum-based, though
depending on other factors (tech level,
government, etc.), their economy could
be based on something else. Also, this
would be where you would detail any
major products the world is noted for,
or industries.
Tech Level: Level of technology. For most worlds,
this will simply be 'Modern,' though,
some may be less advanced.
Culture: Culture and society of the world.
Describe what, if anything, makes the
colony unique.
Notes: Use this field to cover anything that
the other fields fail to cover.
8.) Do you have an example?
Official UFPDOCA Submission Template
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Colony Name: New Casablanca
Creator: Trevin Sandlin
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GEOGRAPHY
System/Location: Fortis-system;
Coreward of the Federation
Distance to Nearest Starbase: 6 weeks to SB OMEGA
Planet Classification: M-Class
Satellites/Space Stations: None
Land/Water Ratio: 15% Land/85% Water
Planet covered with freshwater
seas. Land consists mostly of
islands, and one small continent.
Climate Controlled: No
Native Sentient Life: None
==============================================================
COLONY INFORMATION
Colony Age (approximate): 80 years
Population (approximate): 10,000
Species Present: 90% Human, 10% Others
Colony Status: Federation Protectorate
Government: Planetary Council, with a governor
elected by that body.
Major Cities/Settlements: Aquinis Settlement
History:
Settled by a group of scientists, aquatic harvesters
and fishermen. The planet was first surveyed
approximately 100 years ago, by one of the first
major coreward expansion survey missions. Planet was
not deemed to be suitable for colonization, because
of it's small amount of harvestable land. However,
it's scientific value drew a large number of marine
biologists, as well as aquatic farmers/harvesters/
fishermen. Colony size has remained stable since,
not significantly increasing or decreasing since the
initial colonization effort, hovering around 10,000.
Economy:
Latinum-based. Heavily focused on the fishing and
harvesting industry. No mineral resources to speak
of, nor any major industries.
Tech Level: Late 24th Century. (close to modern)
Culture:
None to speak of. A typical isolated agricultural
and scientific colonial mixture.
Notes:
Most of the colonists live in isolated communities
on smaller islands, with about 1,000 living in the
Aquinis Settlement. There are several underwater
settlements, though most are simply homesteads for
aquatic harvesters. Nearly everyone on the planet
does a small amount of harvesting, farming, or
fishing in order to support the colony, including
scientists.
Fairly isolated from the rest of the Federation,
but maintains regular contact through subspace,
as well as freighter shipments and stopovers.
Contact also maintained through the local DOCA
office, located in Aquinis Settlement.
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9.) Need I fill out each template field?
We would prefer it if you made your submission as complete
as possible. This is for several reasons. Most importantly,
the more detailed your submission is, the easier it will be for
other players to use that colony in the future.
However, if you do have problems filling in details for each
of the fields, please feel free to ask questions of the DOCA
staff. We would be happy to explain the possibilities
available to you for the different fields, and help you make
your submission complete.
10.) What is the address of the UFPDOCA homepage?
The UFPDOCA homepage can be found at:
There, you can see the bios for the UFPDOCA staff, as well
as look at the database of ASR colony submissions.
11.) What are these 'megacorps' mentioned on the homepage?
'Megacorps' are giant, ultrapowerful Federation corporations,
which have been created by various players in ASR for various
uses. At this time, submissions for megacorps are only being
accepted on invitation/case-by-case basis.
12.) Anything else?
Nope. That's it. Fill out the form, send it to DOCA, and
we'll take it from there. Someone will be back in touch with
you shortly afterwards with any questions, and a personal thank
you for helping in this project.
Once more, all you need to do is send it to Marc Johnson,
with the subject: UFPDOCA: Information. Thank you in advance
for your interest and help.
Respectfully,
Marc Johnson
Thomas Quinn Coleman, PhD
Secretary, UFP Department of Colonial Affairs (UFPDOCA)
rmjoh2@wm.edu
D'Maris Coffman
Wei Yat Sen, PhD
Deputy Secretary, UFP Department of Colonial Affairs (UFPDOCA)
farrago@eskimo.com
FAQ originally authored by Trevin Sandlin.
Updated(v2.0 November 16, 1997 by Trevin Sandlin.
Last revision(v2.1) June 12, 1999 by James Braun.